The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) cautiously welcomes the US-Iran peace framework – but words on paper must now translate into action for the transport workers who have paid the price of this conflict.
For more than 100 days, seafarers, aviation workers, port workers and other transport workers have been killed, injured, detained and stranded in a war they have no part in.
We welcome this framework as a potential turning point towards a sustainable peace – but given that the full text or not been officially released by either government, we cannot yet fully assess what it means for transport workers. What we can say clearly is this: a signature on 19 June is not the end. It is, at best, the beginning.
On the Strait of Hormuz, the ITF does not expect an immediate return to normal, especially given the reported 30-day timeline on reopening. The backlog of stranded vessels and the need for crew changes and rest, mean a realistic return to normal shipping patterns is weeks, if not months, away.
As we have throughout this crisis, the ITF will work closely with shipowners and industry partners – including with the UN International Maritime Organisation (IMO) – to advance plans to evacuate the thousands of seafarers stranded in the area and ensure that any process puts seafarers' safety first.
The ITF's demands are clear: whatever arrangements govern de-escalation, the commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and other transport operations must come with absolute, binding and verifiable guarantees from all parties that civilian transport workers, vessels and infrastructure will not be targeted.
Across maritime, aviation, ports, logistics and road transport sectors, workers must not be expected to return to operations until authorities confirm that conditions are safe and that routes, airspace, ports and transport corridors have been cleared of mines, military risks and any hazards that could endanger lives.
Masters, pilots and all transport workers must retain the authority to suspend, refuse or reroute operations where there are credible safety concerns, without retaliation, financial penalty or commercial pressure. Freedom of navigation, freedom of overflight and the safe movement of all transport must be fully restored in full accordance with international law and standards.
Immediate measures must also be taken to:
- Facilitate crew changes, repatriation, and safe return of all transport workers.
- Secure the release of all detained civilian transport workers and civilian vessels, aircraft and cargo.
- Provide humanitarian access and emergency support to affected workers and their families.
- Establish coordinated plans to address operational backlogs, worker fatigue and staffing shortages created by the conflict.
- Ensure transport unions are involved in recovery and reopening arrangements at national, regional and international level.
The ITF also commits to working with governments across the Gulf region, employers, unions and workers' representatives, and international partners to support a just recovery for migrant transport workers whose lives and livelihoods have been disrupted by the conflict.
This must include protecting labour rights, ensuring access to wages and social protections, restoring freedom of movement, facilitating documentation and visa processes where disrupted, enabling safe return and re-entry where needed, and guaranteeing that no worker faces dismissal, detention, discrimination or recruitment-related debt as a consequence of the conflict.
Recovery cannot be measured only by reopened ports, restored airspace or resumed trade flows – it must also be measured by whether the workers who keep transport moving emerge safer, more protected and with stronger rights than before.
No worker should bear the human or economic cost of restarting transport after a conflict they did not create.